Inside a startup office in India, engineers at LimeChat are busy creating chatbots that talk like humans. The company’s bold goal: to make customer-service roles almost unnecessary.

“Once you hire a LimeChat agent, you never have to hire again,” said Nikhil Gupta, the 28-year-old co-founder of LimeChat, in an interview with Reuters.

The firm claims its AI chatbots can reduce a company’s need for customer-service staff by up to 80%. India, once known as the world’s back office thanks to cheap labour and fluent English speakers, is now watching AI systems slowly take over jobs in tech support, customer care, and data entry.

According to Reuters, India’s $283 billion IT industry is rapidly changing. The news agency spoke with over 30 executives, workers, and officials, finding that AI adoption is growing faster than job creation.

Rather than slowing down to assess job risks, India appears to be pushing forward, betting that AI will open new types of work in the future.

The global conversational AI market is expanding by 24% each year and is expected to hit $41 billion by 2030, says Grand View Research.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said earlier this year, “Work does not disappear due to technology. Its nature changes and new types of jobs are created.”

But not everyone agrees. Santosh Mehrotra, a visiting professor at the University of Bath, warned that India still lacks a clear plan to manage the impact on its youth workforce. “There’s no game plan,” he said.

Industry data shows that hiring in the business process sector, which employs 1.65 million people in call centres and data handling, has sharply dropped. According to staffing firm TeamLease Digital, job growth fell from 177,000 in 2021–22 to just 17,000 in each of the past two years.

Workers losing jobs to AI

Some workers are already feeling the impact. Megha S., a 32-year-old from Bengaluru, said she lost her job last month as her company began using AI tools to monitor sales calls.

“I was told I am the first one who has been replaced by AI,” she said.

Experts say India may need better social safety nets, like unemployment benefits, to help workers who lose their jobs during the shift to automation.

Analysts warn that AI could hurt India’s outsourcing industry, which makes up more than half of the global outsourcing market.
Investment bank Jefferies predicts a 50% revenue loss for call centres over the next five years as AI becomes more common.

Still, some see opportunity. Industry veteran Pramod Bhasin, who started India’s first call centre for GE Capital, believes the country could become the world’s “AI factory” — exporting automation talent instead of human labour.

Startups like LimeChat and Haptik lead the charge

At LimeChat, engineers have already automated around 5,000 jobs in India. The company’s chatbots now handle 70% of customer queries and aim to reach 95% soon.

“If you’re giving us 100,000 rupees per month, you are automating the job of at least 15 agents,” said Gupta. LimeChat’s revenue jumped from $79,000 in 2022 to $1.5 million in 2024.

Rival startup Haptik, acquired by Reliance in 2019, is also growing fast, with its revenue increasing to $18 million last year. It advertises AI agents that “never sleep and cost just 10,000 rupees.”

Some Indian firms have already cut large parts of their workforce.
Bengaluru-based ad agency The Media Ant reduced its staff by 40%, replacing a six-member call centre with a voice bot named “Neha”.

When a Reuters reporter interacted with Neha, the bot asked questions, recorded details, and ended the chat politely, “Have a great day.”

“Ask her out for coffee and she will laugh it off,” said founder Samir Chaudhary, adding that the AI helped save both time and rent.

Consumers still prefer humans

Despite rapid automation, many customers still want to talk to people.
A 2024 EY survey found that while 62% of Indian shoppers were influenced by AI suggestions, 78% still preferred platforms that offered human support.

LimeChat’s Gupta believes the transition will take time. He said well-trained AI can handle most queries, while only a few human agents will be needed to deal with angry or emotional customers.

India’s AI boom is also changing how young people learn. In Ameerpet, Hyderabad, once famous for Java and Microsoft courses, training centres now teach AI data science and prompt engineering.

At one institute, staffer Priyanka Kandulapati said, “Recruiters are asking for students with basic AI skills. We are streamlining our courses to suit the demand.”

Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, recently offered a blunt prediction:
“All IT services will be replaced in the next five years. It’s going to be pretty chaotic.”